There are plenty of my tax dollars, much more than 4.8, going to places where I disapprove.

Have you ever had to take care of a Medicare patient?

Thought so. Biggest bunch of whiners, complainers, no paying, assholes on the planet. They think they are queens and kings of feudal days of yore. And doctors and nurses are their servants and peons. It is amazing what universal healthcare does to Americans.

Zute wrote:Medicare is paid for by payroll taxes isn't it? I've been paying into it all my working life, just like SS. I don't quite see how you can call it free.

Because current users paid next to nothing back in the day when they were working -- if they were working at all -- since the tax rate back in the day was much lower.

Furthermore, today there is no income cap on the tax, meaning you pay 2.9 cents out of every dollar of profit you make into the system. So unlike Social Security, rich people pay a disproportionately high amount.

In other words, Medicare is currently supported by rich people who are not eligible for it, not by the former contributions of those who are.

Tudamorf wrote:In other words, Medicare is currently supported by rich people who are not eligible for it, not by the former contributions of those who are.

According to the Medicare site, all who paid into the system for 10 years will get Medicare Part A once they hit 65.

I didn't say that rich people wouldn't be eligible for it once they get older, but rather that rich people -- most of whom are NOT old and don't qualify yet -- are the ones currently paying for it all.

Medicare isn't some sort of HSA-like layaway program for old age, where you pay as you get older. It's a tax on rich people to help pay for all of the old people. Take away the rich people paying for it, and the system crumbles, no matter how much you paid in the past.

If you're relatively young now, and paying a fortune into the system, you shouldn't have any reasonable expectation of getting Medicare-like coverage when you turn 65.

There are plenty of my tax dollars, much more than 4.8, going to places where I disapprove.

It's 4.8% of GDP, not 4.8% of taxes paid. It's equal to about 1/3 of personal and corporate taxes combined for 2010.

That seems awfully high to me, considering we rarely do anything productive with it.

Military spending is one of the only real Constitutional reasons to spend money.

Paying to feed Tyrone's baby, who knocked up Latisha,,,,,That's not really Constitutional. But you live in SF, so I know how you might disagree. Especially, when Tyrone has no intention of feeding his own fucking kid.

I have a problem with that.

I have an innate, and real problem with working to feed the kids of other men, who have no intention on feeding their own kids.